Pixies Play 33 Songs for 33 Rescued Chilean Miners at Santiago Show

October 15, 2010 (6:47 am) GMT

The rockers paid homage to the men, who spent two months buried underground, by performing a track for each of the miners at Santiago's Teatro la Cupula.

Rockers Pixies honored the 33 rescued Chilean miners at a show in Santiago on Wednesday night, October 13 by performing a track for each of the heroes. The men spent two months buried underground following a rock collapse and were rescued one by one during a painstaking operation on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the last man making it to the surface just before the band hit the stage at Santiago's Teatro la Cupula.

Overcome with the emotion of the footage of the rescued miners on local TV stations, Pixies frontman Black Francis and his bandmates agreed to turn their first headlining gig in Chile into a marathon tribute to the miners.

A statement from Francis reads, "We were so moved by this story, by how many lives had been affected by this and how the Chilean people banded together to support what can only be described as a miracle that we wanted to do something to show how affected we were by this, so we played a special set - 33 songs for the 33 miners, the longest set we've ever played as a band."

"We found out five minutes before we went on stage that all of the miners had safely reached the surface. This was definitely one of the most meaningful shows we've ever played."